CUNY appoints first Latino, and minority, chancellor

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez was approved Wednesday as the first Latino — and first minority — educator to head the City University of New York, promising to pursue "inclusion and diversity" for students, faculty and staff as he takes over the sprawling university system.

CUNY’s board of trustees voted unanimously to appoint Matos Rodríguez — who has been president of Queens College since 2014 — after a long search that saw several delays. He was long believed to be one of the leading contenders. The board went into executive session, deliberating for just 30 minutes before approving the appointment. Matos Rodríguez, 56, will start his position May 1.

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"I am deeply grateful and tremendously excited to lead the nation's foremost public university, particularly at a time when its mission to maintain and expand academic excellence and the provision of equal access and opportunity has never been more vital," Matos Rodríguez said at the board meeting. "CUNY is a powerful vehicle for the upward mobility for all New Yorkers and it is therefore an indispensable New York institution."

His annual salary will be $670,000, according to CUNY board chairman Bill Thompson. He was recommended to the board by a 14-member search committee made up of CUNY trustees, college presidents, faculty, students and civic leaders, led by Thompson. Isaacson Miller, an executive search firm, assisted the committee in the process.

Matos Rodríguez said he was thankful "for placing your confidence in me" and promised to spend "each and every day working to justify that confidence."

"Our success is propelled by a unique kinship of students, faculty, staff, alumni and leadership who together carry on CUNY's legacy as the paradigm of a people's university," he added. "That is both a high aspiration and an incredible obligation."

Thompson said the search committee considered more than 50 candidates and recommended four for consideration, noting that Matos Rodríguez emerged as “the unanimous choice for chancellor."

"There was a significant number of highly qualified candidates," Thompson said. "We interviewed chancellor-designate Matos Rodríguez early on and throughout the process we kept returning to him time and time again."

Thompson also praised interim chancellor Vita Rabinowitz, who served in the position since June.

“Her skilled stewardship gave us the time that we needed to conduct a rigorous, robust and comprehensive search for our next chancellor," Thompson said.

Matos Rodríguez, board chairman of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, previously served as president of CUNY’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College. He is among only a few U.S. educators who have served at both a baccalaureate and community college.

The Puerto Rico native holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University as well as a doctorate in history from Columbia University.

In 2005, Matos Rodríguez left CUNY, going back to Puerto Rico where he worked for one year as head adviser on Health and Social Welfare to the governor of Puerto Rico. In 2006, he served as Secretary of the Department of Family Services for almost two years.

When he was president of Hostos, from 2009 to 2014, he doubled the college’s fundraising profit and spearheaded a double-digit increase in the retention rate, according to information provided by CUNY.

In October, Thompson told POLITICO that CUNY expected to pick a new chancellor by mid-December, four months behind the August deadline that the university initially set when the previous chancellor, James Milliken, stepped down. Close to mid-December, CUNY told POLITICO "it’s not mid-December yet" and Thompson told WBAI’s “Driving Forces” a new chancellor would be picked “either by the end of the year or shortly thereafter.”

The top three finalists for the job were said to be Gail Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College; Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library; and Matos Rodríguez.

In December, another candidate, Robert Hughes — director of K-12 education at the Gates Foundation — withdrew from the process, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had a tense relationship with Milliken, was rumored to be seeking more coordination between CUNY and the State University of New York. As the process was delayed, rumors circulated that the governor was holding up the search and that budgetary issues could be scaring candidates off.

"Félix is a trailblazing educator with an unmatched commitment to public service, and is an excellent choice to lead CUNY,” he said.

Cuomo appoints 10 of the board’s trustees while Mayor Bill de Blasio appoints five. CUNY said that out of its $3.6 billion budget, 52 percent is from the state while 14 percent is from the city.

Trustee Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, appointed by de Blasio called it an "historic day for CUNY."

"This decision sends a message throughout the university, throughout the city, throughout the state and also throughout the public university that every child ... has a future and they can count on us to be part of that decision and we have done that," Cortés-Vázquez said.